Troy Hunt - who knows a thing or two about verifying and responsibly disclosing data breaches - also chimed in, decrying that some had jumped to the conclusion that a serious breach had occurred without an attempt to independently verify, or even consult Dropbox itself.

Instead, the data swirling around the net appears to be derived from the mega breaches at Tumblr, LinkedIn and MySpace that have recently been in the spotlight.

Of course, if you were making the mistake of using the same password in multiple places - for instance, the same password for Dropbox that you use at Tumblr - then yes, you would be wise to change them.

But that’s far from claiming that Dropbox has suffered a huge password leak. Because there is no evidence to suggest it has.

Sheesh. Now do you see why I recommend encrypting your files before uploading them to Dropbox? It’s not just about stopping Dropbox or a government agency snuffling through your files - it’s in case Dropbox makes another goof like that in the future.

About the author, Graham Cluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the anti-virus industry having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent security analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of computer security, hackers, and online privacy.

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